Quotes of the day

posted at 10:52 pm on November 13, 2012 by Allahpundit

Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), three key Republican players on immigration, told The Hill they’re ready to start working on broad-based reforms next year that could include a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants currently in the United States.

All three are expected to be key players on any immigration-reform negotiations, which are expected to move first in the Senate.

“Everything ought to be on the table,” Hatch said when asked if he’d be willing to negotiate on a comprehensive bill that included a pathway to citizenship.

Schumer noted the framework he developed with Graham has four parts. It would strengthen border security and enforcement of immigration laws by toughening punishment for business that hire illegal workers; require fraud-proof Social Security cards to prevent hiring of workers who lack them; create a temporary worker program; and set a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants already in the country.

Equally specious is the argument that Latino immigrants come here, often illegally, to “steal” jobs or to go on the dole. If illegal aliens are displacing natives in the labor force, why was there more immigration and less unemployment under President Bush? And if foreign nationals are primarily attracted to our welfare state, how to explain the fact that low-income immigrants are less likely to be receiving public benefits than low-income natives?…

As for the economics, immigration is one reason the U.S. has better prospects than the aging entitlement states of Europe and Japan. America needs immigrants with varying degrees of skill and income for economic growth, and the best way to know how much is to let labor markets determine the flow through flexible visa programs.

***

Even if Hispanic voters in Texas went for Obama by a forty-point margin in 2012, however, previous election results in Texas suggest that although the national GOP’s demographic problem is real, it’s not necessarily insuperable. In 2010, for example, Rick Perry won re-election as governor with 38 percent of the Hispanic vote. It’s a salient example: that was only two years ago; the Tea Party movement was already ascendant; Perry had already thrown in with the Tea Party; and Perry is, in most respects, apparently more conservative than Romney…

It is, in other words, possible to conceive of a Republican party that includes conservatives but doesn’t pander to nativists. Such a party would presumably have more success with Hispanic voters than the current iteration, just as a pro-life politician who doesn’t publicly question whether all rapes are “legitimate” ones is probably going to draw more support from women voters than a pro-life politician who does. One thing that is clear from this year’s elections is that Republicans don’t need to win the Hispanic vote to win an election, even in a majority-minority state like Texas. They just need to stop losing it so aggressively.

***

In 1984, President Reagan won re-election despite losing Hispanics 2-to-1. In 1986, Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act, which both tightened immigration enforcement at the border and granted amnesty to 3 million illegal immigrants. In 1988, Hispanics rewarded the Republican party by voting … even more heavily Democratic. President Bush lost Hispanics by 40 points, 70 percent to 30 percent. So much for amnesty as the “single policy change” capable of “fixing the Latino problem.”…

The question is, what happens when they get here? Every amnesty-based proposal to the immigration problem is the essentially the same: a randomly chosen date divides noncitizens, who will be rewarded for illegally entering the United States, from those who didn’t get here illegally soon enough. There simply is no moral or logical reason to reward the first group and punish the second. The moral case for granting citizenship to those in the United States now is just as strong today as it will be for those who enter the country tomorrow. Pretending otherwise, as Krauthammer and Hannity do, only undermines our civil institutions and the rule of law.

***

For instance, consider the idea that a softer line on immigration will boost Republicans’ electoral prospects by helping win over Hispanic voters. There’s no doubt that Republicans will have to find a way to improve their standing among this growing demographic group to compete in national elections. But it isn’t necessarily clear that immigration is the answer. According to a Pew Hispanic Center survey released in October, just 34 percent of Latino registered voters considered immigration to be “extremely important” to them. That trailed education (55 percent); jobs and the economy (54 percent); health care (50 percent); the federal budget deficit (36 percent) and barely edged out taxes (33 percent). It’s quite possible, in other words, that Republicans could back some form of amnesty for illegal immigrants, and still find that they don’t improve among this voting bloc. Also, a softer line on immigration could hurt Republicans’ ability to win over working class voters who feel threatened by cheaper labor, and working class voters are a bloc that another contingent of pundits views as crucial to GOP comeback chances.

Further complicating matters is that 51 percent of Hispanics think abortion should be illegal in most or all cases and 47 percent oppose or strongly oppose gay marriage, according to a study by the Public Religion Research Institute. If Republicans take the advice of many and sideline social issues, there could be a subset of socially conservative Hispanics currently voting Republican, who decide they may as well vote for Democrats on the basis of economic issues.

***

Had Republicans come out in favor of open borders and blanket amnesty, I doubt that they would have won the Latino vote — much less done much better in a state like California, given that its latest round of steep tax increases (now over 13 percent on top incomes) was widely supported by the so-called Latino community. Pundits can rail about supposedly naïve, out-of-touch Republicans who talked of self-deportation and thereby lost the Latino vote; but one just as easily might have castigated them for decrying out-of-control entitlements and food stamps, predicating legal immigration on education and skills, or criticizing unworkable and discriminatory affirmative-action policies, since these positions are also politicized as anti-Latino dog whistles…

What, then, should Republicans do? Stick to their melting-pot principles and apply them across the board, regardless of race and tribe, emphasizing the content of our characters rather than the color of our skins. Of course, avoid gratuitous polarization and loose talk. Close the border, and invest in the formidable powers of American assimilation, integration, and intermarriage to achieve for a soon-to-be-closed pool of Latinos what it has already done for Japanese and Italians. Consider the DREAM Act only if it is coupled with deportation of many of those who do not meet its requirements and with employer sanctions and border enforcement. A particular Italian-American may sometimes be indistinguishable to the eye from a particular Mexican-American, but the former does not qualify for affirmative action, does not take Italian Studies courses, is not labeled a victimized minority because of ethnic affinity with millions of poor Sicilian newcomers — and is not beholden any longer to the Democratic party.

***

The amnesty signed into law by the charismatic and popular President Reagan did not bring Hispanic voters into the Republican party; Republican congressional leaders who believe that sending one to President Obama would redound to their benefit are engaged in a defective political calculus. Nor are Hispanics the only group of voters to consider. Blue-collar whites do not appear to have turned out for Republicans in the usual numbers last week. Support for amnesty will not bring them back. If the policy advanced the national interest, that consideration might not matter. It does when supposed political advantage is the argument for the policy.

The Republican party and the conservative movement simply are not constituted for ethnic pandering, and certainly will not out-pander the party of amnesty and affirmative action. Republicans’ challenge is to convince Hispanics, blacks, women, gays, etc., that the policies of the Obama administration are inimical to their interests as Americans, not as members of any collegium of grievance. That they have consistently failed to do so suggests that Republican leadership is at least as much in need of reform as our immigration code.

***

What’s more likely than race to account for Hispanic voting trends is income, a decisive factor in this election. The Obama campaign did a good job of portraying Romney as a Wall Street multimillionaire whose policies would favor the rich. Despite some conservatives’ belief that the Republican Party is capturing blue-collar America, Romney lost decisively among lower-income voters, who continue to vote Democratic in large numbers. Hispanic households fit into this demographic group: on average, their incomes are about 35 percent lower than the national average. Even more to the point is that Romney did terribly among voters who earned less than $50,000 a year, capturing just 38 percent of their votes—and over 60 percent of Hispanic households fit that income profile…

[I]n most cases, income is a far better determinant of voting patterns than race is (blacks are an exception, for historical reasons). The voting of ethnic groups evolves significantly as their incomes change. The ancestors of millions of today’s ethnic voters came to America in the great immigration wave of the early twentieth century and voted reliably Democratic for generations. Over the last 30 years or so, their descendants’ voting allegiances shifted significantly. Many were first attracted to the Republican Party by an optimistic presidential candidate who campaigned on a convincing pro-growth agenda. That won over voters in 1980; it would do so today, too.

***

The Republican shortfall with the working class in 2012 was due not simply to the nominee’s personal background but to wider issues with Republican policies. In the wake of a decade of lost economic ground and the near-meltdown of 2008, many non-affluent voters seem to have a deep distrust of the ability of Republican policies to work for them. Romney’s poor showing among this demographic underlines the fact that Republicans have not yet found an antidote to this distrust. Further tax cuts will not counter it, nor will promises to end Obamacare. As Ross Douthat suggested the other day, the concerns of average Americans are not the same today as they were in 1979, so Republican policies will have to change with them. By the end of the campaign, Governor Romney was beginning to tout a more forward-looking economic message, one that emphasized industrial renewal, energy development, and middle-class restoration. It was this message that made the election as close as it became on November 6…

What does not seem so clear, however, is how an expansive legalization of current illegal workers, and the new wave of illegal labor such a legalization would be likely to initiate, could improve the economic prospects of the working class or win them over to the Republican side. There might be other reasons to support an amnesty for illegal immigrants, but hopes that such an amnesty will be an electoral panacea are misguided. Perhaps the most promising strategy for winning over native-born and immigrant voters alike would be for Republicans to put forward policies that speak to the needs of the vast economic middle and of economic strivers of all income levels.

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Who’s been promoting him as that “rising star”? The MSM, no? Enough said.

AZfederalist on November 13, 2012 at 11:38 PM

Not just “rising star” but I’ve heard Rubio referred to as “rock star” in the Republican party from many Republican pundits and bloggers over the past year. Maybe not so much lately. Ha. The bloom is off the rose.

Amnesty will pass just as Obamacare passed. The next thing on the agenda will be carbon usage taxes I bet. Geez, it sucks to be us for the next 4 years and probably longer. :(

KickandSwimMom on November 13, 2012 at 11:42 PM

Amnesty may be an issue. Carbon taxes? The Republicans in the House want to maintain their majority; no way they are going to do that if they do the carbon tax. Not sure that they will be able to get away with amnesty either.

The real issue for control of the House is going to be fraud. If the dems are allowed to get away with counting until West is defeated and cheat in other races, then the Republicans are not going to win many races in 2014. They better wrap their heads around that and start pressing for measures to prevent fraud, implemented through their state governments, not by the federal government.

lol — well, I think we found your problem. :) If it’s any consolation, my nick links to a skeleton of a website (that I actually like have some plans for) that was born the night my fantastic, excellent, filled-with-symbolism P**** Riot post got moderated away. It was high art! Poof.

But a lot of that was based upon the glowing media reporting. That kind of stuff takes on a life of its own. Remember also who he defeated in his election and the rough road it took to do that; he is not totally irredeemable. However, this is a lesson in being very careful to watch the media narrative, even (especially) when it is highly favorable to one of our party members.

No, of course the entire Hispanic community didn’t support him, you said it, not me, (making it a strawman), but in fact Ron Paul’s supporters are younger and more racially diverse than other Republicans, and a lot of racial minorities were in fact cheated and disenfranchised by the Republican Party.

Amnesty may be an issue. Carbon taxes? The Republicans in the House want to maintain their majority; no way they are going to do that if they do the carbon tax. Not sure that they will be able to get away with amnesty either.

AZfederalist on November 13, 2012 at 11:50 PM

This was from Roy Beck (NumbersUSA) today also:
“Nearly all Republican Representatives were re-elected from districts that strongly oppose amnesty.”

2. Give the illegal immigrants who are already here work permits only that must be renewed every 5 years but most importantly they should NEVER BE ALLOWED BY LAW TO BECOME US CITIZENS. That is the ultimate price they should pay for breaking the law…

mnjg on November 13, 2012 at 10:58 PM

3. Ditch the anchor-baby clause that encourages so many to cross our borders in order to squirt out a freebie-elligible dependent.

Why aren’t conservatives cool? Why are they perceived as intolerant when it’s the other side who are truly the hateful ones? It’s a fair question.

We have the cool message. It’s “Step off.” Or, for you old schoolers, “don’t tread on me,” which applies domestically and internationally. It’s not cool to have a government intrude into every aspect of your life, under the guise of “help.” The new electorate must learn this, or we are doomed.

For we know there is nothing cool about dependency. And there’s nothing cool about anti-exceptionalism, increased regulation, government control in all sectors, and a fractional country based on race and gender. What’s cool is building businesses, military supremacy (which keeps us free to be cool), unity over division (once called patriotism), and competition (which is the universal engine for self-improvement). All of this may sound dorky, but it’s as cool as James Dean. We need to teach people how to love this country for the reasons that made this country what it is.

It shouldn’t be too hard to win converts, with a message like that. But we haven’t. Which is why last Tuesday was necessary.

The cool cats who claim victory last week cannot be too thrilled. For it is a wake up call for the rest of us, the uncool. It’s time for new blood. We have the message. We just need the messenger.

In the meantime, the cool kids have to try to govern. Which is kind of like James Dean trying to drive. Unfortunately, we’re all in the passenger seat. But we’ve got two years to find another driver, folks. Ladies and Gentlemen: start your engines.

You’re welcome, but I have always compared Labour/Democrats to Santa Claus and said that the Right can never out pander/buy/gift the Left and shouldn’t try. Freedom, rather than dependence, should be what is offered by the Right. The Left has always only offered degrees of slavery.

If you want a more complete understanding of my position on illegal immigration, you might like this:

lol — well, I think we found your problem. :) If it’s any consolation, my nick links to a skeleton of a website (that I actually like have some plans for) that was born the night my fantastic, excellent, filled-with-symbolism P**** Riot post got moderated away. It was high art! Poof.

America was not built by immigrants. At any time since the Founding, the United States has been populated overwhelmingly by people who were born on this soil.

Amnesty is unpopular among the majority of both parties. Which is why the Dems didn’t do it when they had the Super-majority. Both parties want Amnesty, but neither wants to do it alone so they can hide from the voter’s wrath behind the label of “bi-partisanship.”

Hey, I love immigrants. My family were immigrants a couple hundred years ago.

Illegal immigrants? GTFO, lawbreakers. Or do the rest of us get to start ignoring laws we don’t care too much about following? Is that the new rule? The new GOP position – “lawbreaking’s OK, so long as you vote for us”?

I’m talking about last week. I’ve been warning people about Rubio for month.

INC on November 14, 2012 at 12:00 AM

I was always wary of him but my disdain was confirmed when he lauded Obama and said “I welcome the leniency on deportation” after Obama unilaterally and unconstitutionally granted his own personal Dream Act. The guy is nothing but a hispanderer. Rubio sure didn’t help Romney with the Cuban vote in FL.

Why does it have to be citizenship? Why not just make them legal residents? Gone is the fear of deportation, they can’t be exploited, but we aren’t rewarding them for their illegal behavior.

SAZMD on November 13, 2012 at 11:51 PM

How are you not rewarding illegals? You are essentially giving them de-facto amnesty but only as second class citizens who presumably can’t vote, which most citizens will probably feel is un-American and the courts will probably overturn and make them full voting citizens.

Graham is really infuriating, and he’s on of my Senators. Friends of mine tried to fix me up with him at a political gathering years ago. I took one look at him and left…. quickly.

Cody1991 on November 13, 2012 at 11:47 PM

C,mon you don’t like the pudgy prissy types?

arnold ziffel on November 13, 2012 at 11:53 PM

Cody never hangs around
When she hears this hideous sound……..
“Here I come to pontificate all day!!!”
That means that Prissy Lissy Graham is on his way
Yessir, if there is a camera anywhere in sight
Prissy Lissy Graham will hop on the very next flight

…that sign on the thread…”USA BUILT BY IMMIGRANTS”…regarding today’s reality…gives me an idea on cutting some of our national deficit…lets empty all our prisons and jails…and ship them all to Australia! Renewal!

I will never, ever vote for a Republican who supports illegal alien amnesty. Any politician who votes for amnesty should be thrown the hell out of office.

Massive illegal alien amnesty is the equivalent of national suicide.

bluegill on November 13, 2012 at 11:00 PM

Have any of these Republicans stopped for one second to ask themselves what will happen with white voters who vehemently oppose amnesty come Election Day 2014 and 2016? If the GOP grants citizenship to 12-20 million illegals and a bunch of those white voters stay home in protest, the Republican Party will not only fail to retake the Senate and the White House in future elections, they’ll get massacred at the state and local levels as well.

They already went down this road in 2006 and 2008. Out of nowhere with no mandate whatsoever, they tried to shove McCain-Kennedy down our throats and the electoral consequences were disastrous for the Republicans. Even running the very man who tried to grant amnesty, John McCain, saw no benefit for the GOP in the 2008 Presidential election as he lost roughly 7 out every 10 Latino voters.

I hope the Republicans are just paying lip service to this and aren’t serious. If they go through with blanket amnesty, the party is officially done and in a few short years so is this country as we cannot survive the electoral and financial burden 12-20 million newly minted Democrat-voting citizens will add to a nation already on the edge of the fiscal cliff.

the stench of leftist bs is strong in the qotd. and then i scrolled by hucks face on two screen caps…what he has a book? or is he trolling for prezy in 16

in his own way, he matches obama in hubris and ‘charm’…different regions of the country…but prezy huck?

anyway i usually have fnc off on weekend nights…but sadly i happened to walk by just as huck was coming on. Happy as Punch that romney lost.

i mean he was downright cheerful about…well, himself. That he could do much better than any white dude getting the black vote…because he himself got forty…count them…forty percent of the black vote in arkansas when he was GUV

that’s right folks…forget about all this ruminatin about what the movement is all above…hayek and liberty ain’t your answer…it is Huckleberry

Sometimes I wish I had more detail so I could *represent*. But I couldn’t do identity politics if I tried. I’d have to BS it like Fauxcihontas. I don’t think I even asked the question till I was brow-beaten with racism from progressives after I got politically active.

I just love how it took all of 1 day for certain “conservatives” to latch onto this false meme and run with it.

If the MSM had decided to play up the single women’s vote, these same “conservatives” would be penning pieces about how the right needs to stop that gosh-darned war on women. Why, what we need is free contraceptives for all, abortion on demand…

If the MSM had decided to play up the youth vote more, these “conservatives” would be on every TV station shouting, “Free college education is a RIGHT!”

All of this “let it burn” and “sink the ship” baloney is so embarrassing and moronic. You people sound like bigger crybabies than the Democrats after 2000 and 2004. Like hell we would ever support letting the country burn while doing nothing.

If the MSM had decided to play up the single women’s vote, these same “conservatives” would be penning pieces about how the right needs to stop that gosh-darned war on women. Why, what we need is free contraceptives for all, abortion on demand…

4Grace on November 14, 2012 at 12:33 AM

You are so right!

If the MSM had decided to play up the youth vote more, these “conservatives” would be on every TV station shouting, “Free college education is a RIGHT!”

That’s true as far as lefties go, but there is also a large contingent of young Republican Ron Paul supporters who don’t want free stuff but were still disenfranchised by the GOP. These are the people who, combined with more traditional Republicans, made the Tea Party coalition so successful in ’10. In ’12 they were shut out and the GOP lost as a result.

Not that the GOP elite care, they would rather be in the minority than have President Ron Paul eliminating their corruption.

We exchanged Flan recipes but there was no physical contact aside from the time she smacked me with that rock lobster oven Mitt. I sent her a picture of my new T-Shirt but national security was never compromised.

It’s not just the likely politi-hacks who are caving either, I read today that Rand Paul is going to push for a pathway to citizenship for illegals.

KickandSwimMom on November 13, 2012 at 11:49 PM

There are a crapload of them in Kentucky and they really have driven down wages and driven up Medicaid costs in an already poor state. Making them legal forces employers to pay them minimum wage and withhold taxes, and also forces them to get drivers licenses and car insurance. And there aren’t enough of them to turn state elections to the Democrats.

…They already went down this road in 2006 and 2008. Out of nowhere with no mandate whatsoever, they tried to shove McCain-Kennedy down our throats …
Doughboy on November 14, 2012 at 12:20 AM

McCain is a traitor in this regard, and I use the term advisedly.

The 2006 version of his bill had a 90 calendar day waiting period for the Z visa. Upon each individual application by 12 to 20 million illegal aliens, the clock started. If the FBI couldn’t compete a criminal background check (probable fake name, no social security number makes that REALLY easy, right?) and DHS didn’t have time to do a MDR-TB test, the illegal alien got AUTOMATIC legal residency, green card, the right to leave and re-enter our country, and a pathway to citizenship. 90 days was impossible enough to process millions at a time.

In 2007 the bill was voted on twice – and McCain changed the 90 days to a SINGLE BUSINESS DAY! He basically said, “Screw you, America — we’re going to let ANYBODY AND EVERYBODY in!”

I can’t believe, given the state of this nation, that Obama was reelected. I wonder just how bad it has to get before people wake up?

Cindy Munford on November 14, 2012 at 1:18 AM

I still think the very people that would have to feel it are the ones that are isolated from the pain the most. I don’t think they will feel it until it’s too late. I never believed in the idea of a “critical mass” before — but I might now.

And there aren’t enough of them to turn state elections to the Democrats.

rockmom on November 14, 2012 at 1:08 AM

Even if your state doesn’t turn blue after an amnesty, by supporting it you are still condemning Americans in other states to a fate that you’ve indicated you wish to avoid for yourself. If you think you’ll be immune consider that it will affect the outcome of presidential and Congressional races as well.

There is no single, simple, easy answer to winning over Hispanic voters. Honestly, I doubt a path to citizenship will do it, but I also have a hard time seeing us do it without giving the Hispanic population “SOMETHING,” on this issue, just to prove we actually do care about their vote.

Full blown amnesty, probably a really bad idea. Politicians keep mentioning a path to citizenship, which I generally take to mean a very gradually phased in amnesty. That sounds like a step in the right direction, but I still wonder if there isn’t anything else we could do to make things a little more equitable for us conservatives.

Well, at least we’re having an honest discussion on the issue at least. For awhile there, it seemed like we were ignoring the issue outright. Mind you, I’m guilty of this myself, but I thought we had more time before shifting demographics became such a problem for us.

Also, I kinda hoped we’d be in a better negotiating position when the final decision finally had to be made.

So, next up is Amnesty. After that, I suppose it’s on to continued closings of oil and coal producers, another run at the 2nd Amendment, an attempt to neuter talk radio & conservative web sites, graduating the next 20 classes of Barry’s domestic army…

So, next up is Amnesty
4Grace on November 14, 2012 at 1:42 AM
that might be up next for them…
i was thinking impeachment for Lying and Treason…
for crimes committed in libya and the
death of 4 brave americans…